LightingEurope calls for renovation to always include an upgrade of lighting installations

UV-C disinfection technology and LED lighting offer chances

Source: Batu Gezer / Unsplash

LightingEurope strongly supports the call in the EU Renovation Wave Initiative published on October 14th 2020 to scale up renovation rates across the European Union. This will not only guide the uptake of innovative lighting technologies and future investment but will also be key to helping Europe’s lighting industry – 80 % of which are SMEs – to recover from the economic impact of the current pandemic.

Europe’s lighting industry already has the innovative and energy efficient technologies and ready to install:

• Properly designed and well-coordinated lighting systems are one of the most cost-efficient ways to reduce energy consumption and CO2-emissions. The European Commission estimates that LED based lighting systems could save the EU up to 48-46 TWh of electricity annually by 2050.
• Better lighting is also one of the major factors impacting people’s wellbeing indoors – for example, students in a classroom with bright white lights score 14% higher than students working in a poorly lit one.
• UV-C is an established technology for disinfection that must be part of the design of safe healthy indoor spaces. UV-C disinfection technology has been proven to inactivate, without exception, all bacteria and viruses against which it has been tested and is broadly used today to disinfect water, air, and surfaces in industrial, commercial, medical, public and residential environments.

There cannot and should not be any renovation of buildings in Europe without upgrading the lighting installations. To grasp the full benefits of better lighting as part of the EU Renovation Wave, we recommend in particular:

• The use of LED lighting, in combination with controls and sensors;
• A full renovation of luminaires that include controls and sensors, with a minimum Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) level. The SRI should also be applied across Europe to maximize its potential for energy savings and a better indoor environment;
• The design of safe indoor spaces that includes the installation of UV-C disinfection technologies, as a means not only to address the current COVID-19 pandemic but also more generally and in the longer term to help ensure healthy indoor environments;
• The introduction of mandatory minimum requirements on Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ);
• Access to public financing should be subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions. An obligation to include lighting renovation to obtain full subsidy should be introduced.